Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many companies in (a) the North East and (b) the UK are paying less than the minimum wage for apprenticeship programmes.

The government is determined that everyone who is entitled to the National Minimum and Living Wage (NMW) receives it. Anyone who feels they have been underpaid NMW should contact the Acas helpline on 0300 123 1100. HMRC (HM Revenue & Customs) review all complaints that are referred to them.

In 2016-17 HMRC closed 78 NMW investigations where NMW arrears were identified and that were recorded in relation to apprentices. The 75 male and 158 female workers affected would have been a mix of apprentices and regular workers. HMRC are unable to provide a separate breakdown on how many of these workers were apprentices, or to provide in year enforcement data for 2017-18.

HMRC does not record statistics on complaints or investigations by reference to countries of the United Kingdom, Government regions, constituencies or counties.